In Phoenix, ofo was basically a madsive donation of bikes to the homeless population. There even seemed to be a cottage industry pop up of people who could break the locks off.
I’m pretty sure this has been the case in many places. I can’t help but feel that this is a positive externality.
I sure hope someone doing research with homeless populations has begun to look into questions of whether or not the flood of bikes into markets has improved conditions for homeless folks. Social services can be hard to get to, and I could imagine these bikes serving a valuable purpose.
I also wonder if the flood of trivially thefted bikeshare bikes has reduced theft of other privately owned bikes. Presumably at least some bike theft is to satisfy a transportation need. If there are limitless Ofo bikes that nobody gets too fussed about when they go missing, perhaps someone is less likely to go prowling a garage?
Every tent camp in Seattle has at least a few of these bikes sitting around so I guess it's helping them get around the city if that's what you are wondering.
